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Bud-I update


Most folks are already aware that the scheduled publication date for ace BeloJo reporter Mike Stanton’s Bud-I bio is in early August, but more interesting perhaps is the word that a Brown University graduate, Jonathan van Gieson, has been working on a theatrical production, Buddy Cianci: The Musical. This is also slated to premiere in August at New York’s International Fringe Festival. (By the way, it is our understanding that the "fringe" here is not in any way an allusion to the former mayor’s hairpiece.)

Speaking of Brown U., there was also an item of interest on Professor Darrell West’s www.insidepolitics.org Web site, which noted how crooner-pianist Harry Connick Jr. was recently waxing nostalgic about an incident involving the Bud-I a few years back.

Apparently, Connick was playing a gig at the PPAC when he noticed a man standing in the wings with two women. They were having a negative impact on his sightlines and he asked his tour manager to ask the group to move to another spot backstage. Of course, it was the Bud-I, and, of course, he didn’t move. When the tour manager went back to ask him to move for a second time, the Bud-I told his tour manager, according to Connick, "If you ask me to move one more time I can have you whacked." We so do miss Mr. Charm. (Rumors that he’ll sign copies of Stanton’s bio to help fund the ailing WaterFire account have yet to be proven true.)

Wag this

As the exceptional columnist Robert Scheer of the Los Angeles Times points out, the worst of the "Wag the Dog" stunts pulled off in Iraq by the Bush administration’s team of Joseph Goebbels manques was not the toppling of the enormous statue of Saddam Hussein or the claims of his hoarding weapons of mass destruction. Rather, it was the fantasized "Saving Private Lynch" sham. (Although P&J do agree with the assertion that Saddam did have WMDs, because we have the receipts for them.)

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has exposed the fact that the entire, once-spellbinding rescue of Private Jessica Lynch owed more to a made-for-TV movie that an actual act of heroism. Not only was this very brave young woman not shot and stabbed by the Iraqis as, US military intelligence (pardon the oxymoron) claimed, but she was nearly killed by her compatriots when they fired on the ambulance transporting her from the hospital back to her unit. Her wounds came when the vehicle overturned, not while standing her ground and emptying her ammo, as the charlatans in Dubya’s spin office claimed.

Besides the obvious disgrace these falsified accounts pose to our international image — although it’s impossible to imagine what it would take to make anyone in Boy George’s employ blush, since they have little pride, scruples, or dignity — it is a blatant affront to the American public, particularly, to Private Lynch and her family. She has been manipulated and used as a pawn in a disgraceful attempt to gain political mileage. That Dubya, the little twit who ducked his National Guard duty, and his Rasputin, Karl Rove, the pursed-lip, po-faced, pear-shaped little queen who would embarrass Goebbels himself for his audacity in lying to the public, can dent the credibility of our military and government is an affront to everyone. But as former Texas governor Ann Richards once said of Dubya’s Daddy — and it’s as true of his son as well — he was born on third base and thought he hit a triple.

Sleep tight, Ike.

Under the rug

Where, oh where, is the coverage about Dick "Big Time" Cheney’s Halliburton doing business with countries that have terrorist connections? Even the esteemed Providence Urinal saw fit to make a front-page announcement of Big Time’s decision to run for Veep again, jumping the story two pages past a report on Representative Henry Waxman’s letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, demanding an explanation of Halliburton’s no-bid contract to manage the "restoration" of Iraq. Never mind that it has been documented that Cheney former company did business in Iran, Iraq, and Libya under cover of corporate darkness.

The mass media is becoming more and more bought and paid for by the media — no surprise when preening Peter Jennings, self-satisfied Tom Brokaw, and the broken down, busted up, egotistical circus dog Dan Rather think they are the news, rather than just reporting the facts. The follow-up to stories like Enron have all the vim, vigor, and validity of O.J’s pursuit of his wife’s killer, no match for a blockbuster story on tornadoes in the heartland.

Sooner or later the public has to start weighing in on the fact that America’s media are just lapdogs for the corporate crooks who rule America, and can be trusted for as far as you could throw the Statue of Liberty. It ain’t just Fox, folks. It is an industry which has lost its credibility. But wait! Isn’t American Idol on?

As Big Time Cheney might say, "Bend over, citizens."

Yet another RIPTA soliloquy

Monday, May 19, early afternoon, the No. 99 bus to Pawtucket, boarding at Kennedy Plaza, is about three-quarters full when a rotund, middle-aged woman in a striped cotton shirt and pants enters and moves to a seat in the front of the bus. She immediately starts speaking (loudly) to no one in general:

"It’s too damn hot. I hate this crummy place. Just get me out of here, that’s what I say — Bermuda, the Bahamas, anywhere! We complain in the winter when it’s cold and in the summer when it’s hot. We just complain all the time. Hey, I just got married. My mother says, ‘ Where you gettin’ all these husbands from? Why don’t you get me one’ . . . I’m an old lonely widow. I’m married to Jesus, that’s what my mother says. They tell me I’m crazy, paranoid schizophrenic. I am crazy, but at least I have enough sense to go to church and pray and get it out of my system."

(A man enters the bus as we turn on to South Main Street. He looks to be around 40, with a few days of stubble on his face and is dressed in a casual manner. A few decades back, he would have qualified as what we used to call "a bum." Our featured entertainer is obviously well acquainted with the new arrival.)

"Hey, how ya doing? I just got married."

"That was fast," he replies.

"I’m going to get my lunch. Did you have your lunch?"

"Yeah."

"Where? At McDonald’s?"

"No, at my Mom’s house. She made me beans."

Much as we hate to leave our loyal readers hanging just as the plot is thickening, it was Jorge’s stop. We suspect that we will meet our friends again on the No. 99 to Pawtucket, hopefully with pen in hand.

Old fart

One of Phillipe and Jorge’s good friends — and an irascible old lefty codger — Richard Walton, will be celebrating his 75th birthday on Sunday, June 1. The gathering, a traditional potluck dinner event, is a fundraiser for Amos House, and the Providence-Niquinohomo Sister City Project, which, as Dick writes, "has no other source of funds, but this enables us to send a lot of medicines down there each year."

The shindig will be held at the Walton Compound at 5 Grenore St., just off Narragansett Parkway in the Pawtuxet section of Warwick, right on "loverly" Pawtuxet Cove, beginning at 2 p.m. It is always a festive event, where the women are easy and the men are easier — "progressives have more fun than conservatives!" sez Mr. W. — so show up with your neck oil of choice and a checkbook. The party has raised more than $30,000 over the years from folks who do not have the world’s largest bank accounts, and another couple of thousand would be nice. If you are interested and have the time, call (401) 781-7504 for details.

For Nick

If you’ve been following the almost daily reports in BeloJo and the stories here in the Phoenix, you know that the continued suffering of the Station nightclub fire is still palpable for most Vo Dilunduhs. This is compounded by the dire need that so many of the victims and their families face. Fortunately, benefit events go on every week and will have to continue for some time. All we can say is keep ’em coming since they are needed in so many ways.

One such event that we are involved in (Jorge, a.k.a Rudy Cheeks will emcee) will be this Friday, May 30 at the All Children’s Theater, which is located at the Vartan Gregorian School at 455 Wickenden St., Providence. It’s the brainchild of Richard and Tanya Donelly. You probably know Richard as one of the most powerful actors to grace the stage, primarily here and in Boston. His daughter, Tanya is, of course, one of the most prominent rock ‘n’ rollers the Biggest Little has ever produced, playing first with Throwing Muses, then with the Breeders and Belly.

The show is to benefit the Nick O’Neill Scholarship fund for the All Children’s Theater. Nick was the talented young musician, songwriter, and actor who perished in the fire. His band, Shyne, was just starting to make a mark and he spent many of his early teen years performing at the ACT. His creative spirit inspired a number of top-notch Rhode Island-based performers to get together for this show. It starts at 7 p.m. and will feature Tanya, playing with Dean Fisher (formerly of the Juliana Hatfield Three), Delta Clutch, the MockingBirds (playing their last gig as the MockingBirds, hereinafter to be known as the StereoBirds), Eric Fontana, and members of Slim Cessna’s Auto Club/Blackstone Valley Sinners.

If you’re not familiar with the local music scene, P&J can assure you that this is an incredibly strong lineup of folks who are producing some of the best music around. Further information and reservations (probably a good idea because this ought to be a sellout) can be obtained by calling (401) 435-5300.

David gets it right again

Last we heard, the position of liaison to the GLBT community in Providence was no longer part of the city’s governmental structure. But, in an interview in last week’s innewsweekly, Mayor Cicilline stated that his office is drafting a policy that would allow liaisons to be appointed by representatives of various factions of the community. "The idea is that the liaison becomes an advocate for the community, not for the city government," David explained.

Indeed, the Bud-I system was for the mayor to make the appointments, hardly a formula for independence and free expression of diverse opinions. This is what it’s all about and the new mayor continues to do the things that will enhance and enrich community activity, and an open discussion of issues important to a variety of constituencies. Bravo!

Send sunshine and Pulitzer-grade tips to p&j[a]phx.com


Issue Date: May 30 - June 5, 2003
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